Kawhi-LeBron showdown could sizzle, or fizzle
LOS ANGELES— Things tend to get a bit overhyped where the Toronto Raptors are concerned so early in this season of great expectations after a blistering start.
The second game of the season against Boston? Some saw it as a “statement” game more than just another regularseason outing.
Philadelphia comes to Toronto to visit? Another benchmark against a top conference rival.
In Milwaukee last Monday? Much the same.
And now, for just one of two times this season, LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers are on tap, Kawhi Leonard is back in his hometown — and that’s going to be a delightful story next sum- mer — but his free agent desires will be an underlying storyline Sunday and the attention is once again ramped up.
It may fizzle before it can even manifest itself on the court.
Leonard is listed as questionable for Sunday’s game here because of a foot he “jammed” late in Friday’s win over Phoenix.
Leonard went through parts of practice at UCLA on Saturday.
“I did everything I wanted to do,” he said.
There won’t be a final determination on his availability until much closer to the 9:30 p.m. ET tipoff.
“That’s what we do the rest of (Saturday) here, is they evaluate him and talk to him, and he’s smart and experienced and knows his body better than anybody,” said assistant coach Nate Bjorkgren, speaking with reporters in place of the laryngitis-plagued Nick Nurse. “It was just a jammed foot, and we’ll go from there.”
If Leonard can’t play, it will rob fans of one of two chances to see him play against James this season, renewing a confrontation that included NBA Finals matchups between Leonard’s San Antonio Spurs and James’ Miami Heat in 2013 and 2014. That would be a shame, even if it would occur in the flow of a team game.
“During the course of the game, you see our team do this all the time, there’s lots of different matchups that happen,” Bjorkgren said. “They happen in transition, they happen out of timeouts. So you’ll see a number of different guys on him, mixing that up, and that goes for everybody that’s out there on the floor.”
Leonard has given Toronto its best predatory individual defender in years, a quick, long and athletic wing who has the ability to anticipate plays and disrupt them.
His oft-seen backwards, blind dive to register a no-look steal against Minnesota is already etched in franchise lore. His treatment of Philadelphia 76ers guard Ben Simmons was borderline cruel, as Leonard’s long reach and disruptive ability paid greatly into 11 Simmons turnovers in one game.
“We want to be an aggressive defensive team, get our hands on some balls out there, get some deflections, get into transition in the open court and get some open threes or layups,” Leonard said after Toronto had dispatched the Phoenix Suns to run their season record to an all-time franchise best 8-1.
The Raptors know a Leonard-James matchup will make fans drool, regardless of the fact the Lakers are stumbling out of the gate this season and the Rap- tors sport one of the best records in the league.
But they also know it’s a more complicated endeavour than saying, “Go, Leonard, guard the most dominant player in the game for the entire night.”
“That’s why we can allow him to play one-on-one,” Danny Green said.
“You’ve got guys like Kawhi that can guard and some of the other guys that can switch down the line like OG, Pascal, Serge who can guard out on the floor, and you have bigs or guards, big co-ordinated guards who can guard guys like that, it helps a ton.
“Obviously, it’s hard to stop (LeBron) 1-on-1 regardless, but you just want to make him beat you by himself and not let other guys get involved because that’s when it becomes a problem. You know he’s going to get his points, but when other guys start stepping up and scoring 20, 15 here and there, that’s what hurts your team.
“You want to limit those as much as possible.”